By: Andrew McPeak A few months back I had the pleasure of teaching three sessions at a district-wide conference for K-12 teachers. As a part of my presentation, I made a point to talk about why building Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) skills during the pandemic was one of the most important challenges we could…

By: Tim Elmore Gretchen Goldman is a scientist, a mom, and the research director at a nonprofit in Washington. Her job involves conducting television interviews and briefing lawmakers. Now, however, she is doing this work from home, near her young children and a chaotic environment. On the screen, Gretchen looks poised and well dressed, but…

By: Tim Elmore Although millions of teachers, students, and parents would say the abrupt transition to remote learning a year ago was problematic, many are now preparing for more of it going into the 2021-22 school year. According to journalist Benjamin Herold, “Many teachers hate it. Millions of parents find it exhausting. A growing body…

By: Tim Elmore One fascinating study on the subject of compassion was conducted at Princeton Seminary in 1973. Graduate students who studied theology were asked if they were entering the ministry because of innate reasons (i.e., they cared for people) or for circumstantial reasons (i.e., their father was a minister). After the survey, each respondent…

By: Andrew McPeak You’ve probably had something like this happen in your classroom this year. You work hard to have fun with your students. You create interesting and fun assignments for them, and you think it’s going well. Then something happens. A student says something harsh like, “I hate this class,” or a parent contacts…

By: Tim Elmore Last fall, a group of high school freshmen sat in health class discussing personal hygiene. The subject was already deeply personal, but it became awkward when Erica failed to show social awareness. When Jacob was unable to hear a classmate’s comments, Erica reprimanded him, saying, “What are you, deaf? Pay attention!”  Erica…